Focus Area

Wood & furniture

Merging functionality, design, and sustainability in living spaces should be so effortless that you live the difference instinctively. Materials make this possible – and our Next solutions go even further, transforming today’s high-performance solutions into new concepts for house and home.
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Challenge: Smart choices for the world’s most important place

The home is probably the most important and personal place for every one of us. We want our homes to be as cozy, attractive, and functional as possible, whilst avoiding impact on our health and reducing our impact on the environment.

This desire is reflected in current consumer trends, such as surfaces that are durable and look good for longer – triggered not least by the sharing economy – and natural, honest materials that give us a sense of comfort and belonging. At Covestro, we deliver the coatings and adhesives that enable manufacturers to cater to these fundamental furniture needs.

Key Drivers

  • More sustainability in more applications

    More sustainability in more applications

    The wood and furniture industries are seeking to extend the scope of more sustainable technologies to areas where they couldn’t be applied previously.

  • Safeguarding health and safety

    Safeguarding health and safety

    Reducing VOC and monomer content in coatings & adhesives formulations is a key focus for industry players and legislators. UV-curable and WB systems are increasingly used as alternative solutions, offering new levels of product safety and industrial hygiene.

  • Enabling seamless production

    Enabling seamless production

    To take advantage of the opportunities that improved materials bring, manufacturers need to be able to integrate these materials seamlessly into existing production lines.

Status: Safer, more sustainable surfaces

Wooden furniture is just as popular as ever – perhaps even more popular in recent years. But consumers and legislators are no longer content with the chemicals traditionally used in wood coatings and lacquers. These chemicals are typically not waterborne, and can contain higher levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or potentially hazardous residual monomers. With regulations tightening – particularly EU REACH regulations on monomer content – manufacturers will need to find new solutions. Waterborne and UV-curable systems are increasingly popular alternatives, offering new levels of product safety and industrial hygiene.

Reducing emissions, VOCs, and monomer content

Innovative materials can enhance and preserve the natural beauty of wood, while also helping to protect our environment and the health of those who work in the wood-processing industry. Take our Ultra range of polyisocyanates with less than 0.1% residual monomer content (so no additional training is needed to comply with the REACH diisocyanates restrictions). Bayhydur® quix ultra is one example. This patented fast-drying hardener yields a high-performance water-based coating, offering low-VOC technology and lower emissions than solventborne solutions with the same performance.

Manufacturers can also achieve lower emissions with partially bio-based options like our CQ range of products (with at least 25% alternative non-fossil raw materials) or our Decovery® resins (with up to 52% plant-based content). Made to look and feel natural, these resins nourish and protect furniture while reducing environmental impact.

Improved sustainability meets efficiency

Of course, increased sustainability shouldn’t just go hand in hand with a great look and feel, but also with efficiency. Powder coatings like Uralac® Ultra have great potential in this area. With curing temperatures of just 120-130°C, and a potential application time of just three minutes, this solution is well suited to coating heat-sensitive substrates such as processed wood.

Soft-furniture solutions 

Beyond wood, there’s also increased interest in more sustainable mattress foam solutions. With adhesive solutions like Dispercoll® U 84 and U 81, our customers can improve industrial hygiene and contribute to the circularity of mattresses. As waterborne polyurethane dispersions (PUDs), they provide an alternative to halogenated polymers. They can also be combined with the polyurethane foams widely used in today’s soft furniture to create monomaterials – which are more likely to be recyclable. And, unlike typical PUDs, their adhesive properties are comparable to more traditional polychloroprene dispersions.

Facts & figures

  • The world needs furniture

    The world needs furniture

    In 2023, USD 504,439 billion worth of furniture was produced globally; the market is expected to register a CAGR of 2% between 2025 and 2028. ¹

  • Mountains of mattresses

    Mountains of mattresses

    In Europe, 30 million mattresses are discarded every year. ²

  • Limited or long lifespans?

    Limited or long lifespans?

    Estimates of the typical lifespan of a piece of furniture range from 5 to 20 years (mostly based on recommendations of when to replace it). ³

Next: Even more circular solutions for tomorrow’s living environments

As the wood and furniture industries call for more product transparency and bio-based processes, we recognize the urgent need for even more sustainable solutions. That’s why we’re promoting more sustainable initiatives that contribute to the health and well-being of people and the earth – such as our CQ solutions. With at least 25% non-fossil-based raw material content, these solutions are making increased circularity and high performance possible in applications including hardeners for 2K waterborne wood furniture coatings. 

Hands-on solutions

Wood & furniture

  • Story

    UV resins that are mostly bio-based 

    UV coatings with sustainable materials: Learn how to create ultraviolet coatings with up-to-83%-bio-based resins. 

  • Story

    Polyisocyanate crosslinker portfolio from Covestro

    More sustainable IPDI product line with reduced carbon footprint, enabled via a mass-balance approach.

  • Case study

    Waterborne & vegan: More sustainable synthetic textile coatings

    Explore how we pioneered a vegan waterborne synthetic coating system with Trans-Textil, to contribute to a more sustainable future for the textile industry.

  • Story

    LCA & innovation

    Learn how Covestro carries out lifecycle assessments (LCAs) for its powder-coating resins and crosslinkers.

  • Story

    HSS: Technology

    Discover how to powder-coat wood, MDF, and other heat-sensitive substrates.

  • Story

    HSS: Features

    Discover the excellent aesthetic, protective, and durable features of powder coatings for heat-sensitive substrates.

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